Don't forget about ILB. Both Keith and Bradie are probably gone after this year with both of their contracts being up, and while I hope Carter and Lee form a great duo for the next 5+ years, we have nothing behind them.

Orie Lemon is on the practice squad and he showed something in pre-season, but we need more than that.

Devon Still had another big game last week against Iowa. 6 Tackles, 2 TFLs and a key sack at the end of the game. He's also demanding a ton of attention from offenses, getting doubled and freeing up other guys in the front 7 to make plays.

A guy that is having a really good season for OU is Frank alexander DE. Against Texas he had 6 tackles, 4 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery. listed at 6-4 255, in 5 games he has 7.5 TFL. 5.5 sacks, a forced fumble, a pick, and 3 PBU...

Winner of the SEC OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK Award. Richardson makes the Fab 5 list for the first time with his career-high 183 yards on just 17 carries and career-high 4 TD game against Mississippi. He also added 2 catches for 30 yards. Richardson has now tied a school-record and leads the nation with 6 straight 100-yard rushing games. Now ranks 10th all-time at Alabama with 2,363 career rushing yards. Leads the SEC and ranks 4th in the nation with 130.3 rushing yards per game and 3rd in the nation in scoring with a whopping16 total touchdowns.

DT Fletcher Cox, Mississippi St - 6'4, 295*

Winner of the SEC DEFENSIVE LINEMAN OF THE WEEK for the 2nd week in a row! Fletcher Cox posted a career-best 4 TFLs and a pair of sacks in Mississippi State's 14-12 loss to South Carolina. He was credited with 6 total tackles, second most in his career behind only the previous weekend's 7 total stops (vs. UAB). Cox led a defensive front that held USC to a season-low 110 yards on 43 rushing attempts and the SEC's leading rusher Marcus Lattimore to 39 yards on 17 attempts. The previous week, when Cox won this same award, he posted 7 total tackles, including 5 solo stops, in Mississippi State’s 21-3 victory over UAB. He was a presence in the UAB offensive backfield for most of the game, credited with 5 quarterback pressures. Cox leads a defensive front that has not allowed a touchdown in its last six quarters - a total of 20 opponent possessions. - SEC football

CB Morris Claiborne, LSU, 6'0, 185*

Claiborne returned an interception 89 yards and also had 2 pass deflections and 2 tackles against Tennessee. Claiborne has risen his stock sky high this season with his excellent play thus far. I heard Kiper on the radio yesterday raving about him being the best corner in the nation. I bet you can just imagine his voice praising Claiborne. lol. Honestly, he could be long gone by the time we pick, so don't get your hopes up too much.

FS Bacarri Rambo, Georgia - 6'0, 218*

Making a 2nd Fab 5 appearance! Rambo had a team-high 8 total tackles (4 solos) with an interception and two pass deflections against Vanderbilt. He was all over the place! This Bulldog is proving to be quite the playmaker and ballhawk. If things continue, I expect his draft stock to rise and in turn see him declare for the draft as a Junior.

OG Chance Warmack, Alabama - 6'3, 320*

I've given a lot of love to Warmack's teammate Barrett Jones, but Warmack is no slouch himself. Winner of the SEC OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE Award went to Warmack who had the top grade on the Alabama offensive line with no penalties, no pressures, no missed assignments and no sacks with five pancake blocks against Ole Miss.

Peter Konz, C, Wisconsin*: Rarely does an underclassmen center deserve mentioning this early on a Big Board, but Konz is special. His size and strength inside and fluidity when blocking at the second level could allow him to join the Pouncey twins, Alex Mack (Cleveland Browns) and Eric Wood (Buffalo Bills) as the fifth center drafted in the first round over the past four drafts.

Garrett has a direct pipeline into wisconsin in Paul Chryst. This is a big need position and if we make the playoffs should be a 15-25 pick if he declares. OL rarely leave wisconsin early tho...so might be me dreaming a year early...wouldn't be the first time.

Garrett has a direct pipeline into wisconsin in Paul Chryst. This is a big need position and if we make the playoffs should be a 15-25 pick if he declares. OL rarely leave wisconsin early tho...so might be me dreaming a year early...wouldn't be the first time.

Yeah, that thought crossed my mind. But even so, a part of me just doesn't like the thought of a 1st round C even though I do think that he's head and shoulders above his competition.

I was going to do a big write up about players who are making too much money and gear it towards the draft. But then I looked at the number. Aside from Dware/Romo/Austin/Witten/Ratliff all key pieces to the foundation of this team...we have one bad contract.

He'll cost a lot to cut but I think if we can learn anything from our salary cap situation it's that we aren't overpaying for anyone on the roster right now outside of Newman. We aren't going to have a lot of cap play with all the cuts we made this year...so I think we'll see another slow FA just making plays at need positions. Romo didn't rework his deal but have you seen the numbers our top player are going to be making. We don't have a lot of big contracts but over half of our cap can be accounted for over 6 people. They deserve to get paid...but think of all the dead money we have waiting next year and you start to see the position we are in.

Ware = 8 million
Romo = 11 million
Free = around 10m

This tells me one thing...dallas might learn going for needs over talent if it comes down to a flip of the coin. We aren't going to have a lot of free money to play around with so I look for us to address our biggest needs early. This might be one of the few cowboys drafts were we really target need positions.

Another thing is to look at our upcoming free agents. There are 8 upcoming free agents that have started a game for our team.

When looking at draft day I always factor in which starters will be gone and who's making more than there worth.

Now we have a realistic idea of where we will go on draft day. These include in no specific order.

#1CB - Newman is our #1 we have good youth behind him...maybe he could restructure.

ILB - We are losing 2 ILB...Carter is being prepped as a nickel guy early...might be a position that makes sense in FA find a cheap servicable vet. Brooking was a Wade guy and Bradie a Parcells guy...wouldn't be surprised to see neither of them resigned.

OLB - Spencer is a guy who we would probably like to resign but it's going to come down to dollars. If he wants a big pay day he'll likely have to go elsewhere...I don't see Dallas being able to pay him that type of money.

OG - Dockery wasn't suppose to be the next big thing or anything...but neither young guy did a lot to reassure us that he should be our starter next year...hell we cut Holland and pissed him off and still called him back because our guys are so bad. So not exactly a vote of confidence. Interior OL usually cost a pretty penny if they are a top player at their position...so we'll either have to go with a middle level signing or address this early in the draft.

S - Lastly both of our safeties are on one year deals. We can choose to bring back one...but if both guys are looking for multi-year deals I just don't see us bringing back both. Free Agent safeties are never cheap...so like OG if you want one...it's likely going to be a middle to lower tier player.

For a team that isn't going to have a lot of money to address needs with above average players in FA we are going to have to have a solid draft and address needs early.

I'll start making my list of positions ...but based on what I've seen in this years draft I think it makes sense to match our selections with the value in the draft.

1. Interior OL
2. Safety
3. CB
4. ILB
5. OLB
6. TE

That is how I think our needs stack up...so in a perfect world we could find value at those positions in the coordinating rounds and have a very good draft.

Projecting our picks is weighted heavily on where we finish this year...a playoff team would probably be able to draft interior OL...where as a middle of the road team would probably not be able to justify the value. I'll base this mock off of the Dallas cowboys going 10-6 and making the playoffs.

This draft looks too good to be true to me...but if Konz comes out we should have a chance...Martin is supposed to have elite measurables but he'll have to prove that...Hightower is going to be a bit slow and that could cause him to fall a bit...and TE is always a crapshoot in the middle rounds...but a smart player to replace Bennett with a little more upside than Phillips wouldn't surprise me at all. I could see us going TE as early as the 3rd.

I went into this past offseason expecting Newman to either get cut or be forced to restructure. Neither happened. We lost out on the Nnamdi sweepstakes and Newman's camp played their cards right by staying silent and letting the cards unfold. In the end, the Cowboys couldn't upgrade the position and were forced to see to Newman's demands. They had lost all leverage since they ignored upgrading CB through the draft and lost out on landing Asomugha.

Paying for Newman's production this year - $10M cap hit ($8M base) - must leave a sour taste in Jerry and Stephen's mouths. Especially since he came out of the gates injured and unable to play.

Next year, I don't expect the same situation to roll out the way it did this year. The carrot is not hanging in front of the donkey's nose this year. For one, there is no CB in FA in the caliber of Nnamdi. Secondly, FA will go back to normal and begin before the draft (unlike the lockout situation we had). So the Newman situation will be settled a lot earlier than it was this past offseason.

One realistic possibility is that the person replacing Newman will be Scandrick. There is growing faith in him and by season's end Ryan could feel comfortable with Scandrick in the base defense. I'm sure he'd be fine with that now, but he's said that he doesn't want to fix what's not broken. So Scandrick is what he calls his 3rd starting CB. We couldn't give Newman the boot because our depth was so shoddy, but next season, we should expect change.

The good part about that is that as good a job as Scandrick did on Welker, I still think he's better covering wides than slots. If he continues to shutdown slot receivers then it would be real hard moving him, but I think we'd have more ease and flexibility in the draft if all we had to do was find a nickel corner than a true #1 CB.

Anyway, what are yall's thoughts about Kelechi Osemele? A behemoth of a man, holding his own playing LT right now, but will certainly play OG wherever he gets drafted. Has been dealing with a sprain ankle problem this year, but that doesn't really scare me. I've only seen a few things thanks to youtube, certainly not enough to make a concrete judgment.

Anyway, what are yall's thoughts about Kelechi Osemele? A behemoth of a man, holding his own playing LT right now, but will certainly play OG wherever he gets drafted. Has been dealing with a sprain ankle problem this year, but that doesn't really scare me. I've only seen a few things thanks to youtube, certainly not enough to make a concrete judgment.

Hard to say because I've thought he looked terrible at LT. He doesn't have the feet to play LT in college, IMO, much less the NFL. He's def strong and once he gets his hands on you, you're blocked. I would be nervous taking him in the 2nd because you're projecting a guy to a position he hasn't played in 2 years. And when you take a guard in round 2, he better step in and be very good day one.

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In war, you win or lose, live or die - and the difference is just an eyelash.

I wouldn't mind Osemele in Round 2. He's a bit of a project though he could surprise, I guess.

PUtting the terms 2nd round & guard & project together scares the crap out of me. I don't mind putting two of those together but all three....

I think Arkin still is the answer here. He just needs time to get stronger. I also think guys like Kowlaski and Nagy will be fine with a year in the S&C program. For that reason, I'm not sure I want to go guard that high. Now, center is another story. If we could land a day one starter at center, I'm down with that.

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In war, you win or lose, live or die - and the difference is just an eyelash.